The kiddos had fun this evening. It feels like spring is officially here! Our neighbors have these beautiful daffodils lining their driveway, so I thought it'd be a fun photo opp.

Funny story about daffodils...

Growing up, I knew what daffodils were. And I had heard of jonquils. But I really had no idea what a jonquil was. I just assumed it was a flower that didn't grow in South Dakota (not unheard of).

Just last week, I discovered that they're the same thing. Apparently jonquil is the southern term for daffodils! Who'da thunk it?

Learn something new every day....

I'm absolutely kicking myself for allowing the dilemma I'm currently in to come to pass. Two years ago when my passport came and looked odd to me, I should have contacted the State Dept right away. The fact that I travelled to and from Canada made me believe that my passport was correct. It didn't even dawn on me that it could have been due to the fact that the passport rules were not yet in full effect.

So... my day today...

7:30am...
On the phone (in queue) with State Department. Queue time 15 minutes. Conversation time about 15 minutes. Explained the situation -- all appeared fine on their end. She did tell me that I can't fly into Mexico w/ just a drivers license and birth certificate. If I were driving, that would work, but flying requires a passport. She gave me a number to call to get further advisement. She led me to believe that I'd be OK with my current (expired) passport.

10:00am...
Trip to the local Post Office. This freaked me out a bit. The woman there unfortunately couldn't help me (which didn't surprise me, but I wanted to see a live person rather than talk to a voice through a phone). She did say that my passport is in fact the old one, and is technically a "tampered with" document, therefore not legal. She also said that since I never received my new passport, it's technically lost or stolen, and must therefore be reported as such.

PANIC! Yes, this is when I really started to panic. I knew I didn't have time to do the report, get a new one, etc -- all before my flight on Friday morning. Especially since our intentions were to drive Wednesday afternoon to drop off the kids. Oy. Stress, stress, stress.

10:15am...
Phone to State Department... again. Over and over and over. They're experiencing a higher than normal call volume and can't take my call right now. What's up with that -- it's an emergency! And the number given to me earlier this morning won't allow me to talk with a live person. Not helpful! Voice prompts and automated info will not get me my answers, or my correct passport.

11:15am...
Finally get through to the State Department again. New lady. This one said that it appears my new passport was never mailed. WHAT!?! She went on to correct herself and give me a Fed Ex tracking number, but added that it doesn't show that it was received by me or returned to them. (Duh -- I knew I hadn't received it). She suggested that since it had been 2 years, it was unlikely to still be sitting in the "lost mail" section, so I should schedule an appointment at my nearest Passport Agency (i.e. one of the few regional offices), as that was the only way I could get my expedited passport. Nearest office: Houston. Yes, that's 9.5 hours away. Thankfully, it's only 2 hours out of the way from where we're going Wed/Thurs. Ugh.

11:30...
Call Fed Ex. Give them the tracking number. They don't have record of it. I asked if it's because it's too old. They said, "No, we'd still have record of it in billing. It's because the sheet was printed, but it was never handed over to a Fed Ex representative." They never mailed it!!!! ARGH!!!

12:00...
Call another State Dept person -- a direct line given to me by my wonderful brother who has a few inside connections. Unfortunately, this person only handles government workers, not citizens, so really couldn't help me. She did, however, press my breaking point button. She asked the simple question, "Can I ask why it took you 2 years to report that you hadn't received your new passport?" And I just broke down -- the stress, frustration, and stupidity of it all got to me. My answer: because I've never received a passport renewal, didn't know what it SHOULD look like, and assumed that what I received was correct! *sigh*

12:15...
On the phone again with the State Department to let them know that Fed Ex never received the package. This person also said, "It looks like it was never sent," but then went on to kind of cover for herself and checked the tracking number. She then was able to send an urgent request to the processing department (who of course have no direct lines to follow up). I told them the urgency is huge, because if I have to go to Houston, I have to also leave earlier than originally planned. So she basically needed to have them return the call today (they didn't). I also told her that I'd prefer NOT to pay again, since it wasn't my fault that I didn't have the documents. I asked for a copy of all the stuff we'd talked about for my meeting in Houston.... but she refused, saying that they'd be able to see it all when I get there. Yes... but *I* would like to have a copy of all the mistakes that were made!

So we've now booked a hotel for Houston on Wednesday night. I have an appointment on Thursday morning at 8am at the Passport Agency. I can only pray that they can turn it around immediately (I was told they should be able to). Should is NOT a good word today. Then we head on to Jon's brother's house, because they're watching the kids for us. And then we fly out on Friday.

Please, oh please, oh please let us fly out on Friday.

Besides being ugly, what else do you see that's wrong with this picture?




















I got my first passport in college in 1996. I was 20. In 2004, I updated it with my married name. I had gotten married much earlier, but had no need to travel abroad until 2004. The back page of my passport says that on May 14, 2004, my name had been updated.

All that's cool and good.

In 2007, I needed to travel to Canada. It was about the time when they were going to require that US citizens also needed a passport. I thought mine was still valid, but then checked and realized it had expired a year prior! Oops! So I filled out the appropriate paperwork, took the photo, went to the Passport Agency at the local Post Office, and expedited my passport to the US State Dept to get it renewed.

The above photo is what they sent back. My OLD passport with my NEW photo simply stapled to it. There is no addendum in the back.

Today I went to register our upcoming trip with the US Embassy online. It asked for my expiration date on my passport. So I dug it out. There IS NO EXPIRATION DATE!!! What!?! The only expiration date listed is April 2006! Now I know that I sent it in and updated it in 2006 -- but why would there be no updated expiration date, no addendum on the back page, and why would they staple my photo. *I* could have stapled my photo.

Since it's a Sunday afternoon, I can't really do anything about it but flip out! So tomorrow I've got to call the US Passport people and run to the Post Office and pray that my trip will still be a green light!

Uggabugga.

I'm a little (ok a lot) late in posting these. It took me a full week to get the photos taken! :) But here are the completed projects.

The first is the picture of Dominic's name painting. It's 16x20 and really will work well in his room. The side is a little darker than the photo appears -- the flash over-exposed it slightly. He thinks it's pretty cool, and now Amara's all over me to get hers finished! It's going to have to wait til after vacation though.




























On the other hand, I did make her a project this weekend. I found some of the cute pre-smocked, pre-hemmed fabric at WM a few weeks ago. I added grosgrain ribbon in 3 colors in the bottom, and a ribbon tie around the neck, and it makes a super cute little dress! Oops, no pictures. That will have to come later!

The next pictures are of the nap mats I made the kids. They loved them, which makes me happy! :) The first photo is unrolled with their respective pillows. The second photo is all rolled up. Check out the different ribbons for Dominic's.

One week. Not even.

Right now NEXT week we'll be enroute to San Antonio. Actually, last night NEXT week we'll be enroute to San Antonio with a pitstop in Dallas for some outlet shopping.

I'm SO excited!

I'm oddly nervous about leaving the kids for a week, too. But I'll get over it! They're in good hands, and they'll have a blast with their cousins. It's just that it's the longest I've left them alone before. And I'll miss them. But again... I'll get over it!

Once we drop the kids off, we're boarding a plane for Mexico! The beauty of this trip... well... there's lots of beautiful things about this trip...
1) We're going with our old neighbors from Baltimore, who we miss like crazy! There will be 8 adults heading south for some much-needed warming up and relaxation time.
2) Three of the other adults on the trip are "planners" -- which means they love all the details and finding all the fun excursions and mapping things out for us to do each day. Jon and I don't like the details, but we love to take part in them. So we're not having to get bogged down with the things we hate -- but will still get to do the things we love!
3) It's warm in Mexico!

The bad thing right now is I've got perpetual lists going through my head. Lists of what I need to pack. Lists of things I need to do before we leave (like pay the bills!). Lists of emergency info for the kids should something happen. Lists of what the kids need to have packed. I really need to just pack, so I can turn off the lists! They're literally keeping me up at night.

The funny thing: our "planner" neighbors have already given us a very thorough packing list. So I'm not sure why I'm still generating them in my head!?

Excitement, I guess.

Oh... and the last beautiful thing...

This is the FIRST true vacation Jon and I have ever taken together! We've gone lots of places, but usually it was hooked to a business trip, a family reunion, a holiday, etc. This trip is just for us. Yippee!